Maryland volleyball weekend preview vs. No. 19 Purdue and Michigan

Maryland volleyball (10-2) brings its six-game winning streak back to College Park to begin conference play. Its Big Ten schedule opens with a matchup against No. 19 Purdue (6-3) on Friday followed by a meeting with Michigan (2-7) on Sunday.

The Terps come off their second straight undefeated weekend after a successful trip in Florida at the Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic. Their tournament kicked off with a dominant 3-0 win over Le Moyne on Friday and continued with a doubleheader the next day. 

It was a long Saturday for the Terps, facing Florida Atlantic at 1 p.m. and Florida Gulf Coast only a few hours later. They made quick work of the Owls with a 3-0 sweep, and it looked like more of the Eagles later on, leading 2-0 entering the third set. Florida Gulf Coast stormed back at home and forced a fifth set, but Maryland put its fatigue aside and finished the job, winning 3-2.

One of the major storylines of the weekend was outside hitter Sam Csire becoming the 15th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. Csire struggled through the first two sets against the Eagles until a kill to open the third set put her over the historic mark. She currently leads the team in kills (110) and is second in digs (79).

Middle blocker Anastasia Russ had another very efficient weekend, collecting 23 kills overall. The redshirt senior has her hitting percentage up to .516 with just nine errors on the season — best among all Division I players.

The Terps start their homestand facing a Purdue squad that fell to USC last Friday. The Boilermakers have only faced nine non-conference teams but have still picked up some wins against quality competition, most notably defeating a trio of ranked opponents in No. 17 Kansas, No. 22 Kentucky, and then-No.19 Marquette.

Libero Maddie Schermerhorn has been putting up numbers defensively for the Boilermakers. Her season total sits at a team-leading 164 digs after collecting 22 digs last Friday, and her 4.32 digs-per-set average ranks her in the top 80 in the NCAA.

Offensively, Purdue gets most of its kills from the one-two punch of outside hitters Chloe Chicoine and Eva Hudson. Chicoine, a freshman, was the No. 1 ranked recruit in the nation by PrepVolleyball and is living up to the hype so far this season. She has a team-leading 161 kills combined with 75 digs and a .273 hitting percentage.

Hudson is having another stellar season following her 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year campaign. The sophomore has recorded 138 kills so far this season including a team-leading 17 kills against USC.

“In the matchup that we won [last season], we were able to affect [Hudson] a little bit offensively, I thought that changed the complexion of the match,” coach Adam Hughes said. “This year it’s interesting because they have a one-two combo which makes things a little bit more challenging.”

Maryland will finish its weekend against a struggling Michigan group. The Wolverines are in the midst of a three-game losing streak after a pair of five-set losses to Bowling Green last weekend. Michigan will be without its head coach Erin Virtue this weekend, who will be in Poland with Team USA.

The Wolverines use multiple pieces offensively, as five different players have registered over 60 kills entering the weekend. Outside hitter Kendall Murray leads the way with 87 kills and 98 digs, with middle blocker Jacque Boney shortly behind with 84 kills alongside a .356 hitting percentage.

Valentina Vaulet (69 kills), Serena Nyambio (66 kills) and Amalia Simmons (64 kills) round out the top-five.

Michigan got the best of Maryland last November, winning 3-1. The Terps will look to get redemption on this year’s new-look Wolverines team.